What's in a Name?
by Unsubstantiated Assertion
Summary: Of all the choices Rayla and Callum had to make over the years, picking a name for their unborn child might be the hardest. Then Callum realizes that the answer has been there his whole life. Set about 8 - 10 years after the series.


_**Sorry again for the final chapter of Swapped taking so long. Its coming, slowly, but I wanted to do a quick oneshot for Valentine's Day since I had a cute idea. Almost every fanfic picks Sarai as the name for a Rayllum child, but what would the in-universe reason be? Besides the obvious that Callum really loved and misses his mom, of course. I thought of another reason that fits together in a neat way!**_

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They'd been at it for months. Almost as long as they'd known they were going to be parents. But even with the due date only a few weeks away, Callum and Ralya still couldn't agree on a name for their child. Hundreds of names had been suggested at that point. Human ones, elven ones, even some in draconic, but those weren't meant too seriously.

Rayla laid on the couch in her and Callum's room in the castle. After years at the Storm Spire, the battles against Aravos and Viren, working as emissaries for peace, and countless other adventures, the two finally had to return to Katolis. Though the happy couple was well aware of the irony that what had finally gotten them to settle down would in actuality make them much busier in the long run.

Rayla absentmindedly thumbed through an old book borrowed from the royal library. There wasn't much else she could do in her current state. It was torture and only added to her excitement for the birth. In front of her, Callum paced back and forth. They'd been suggesting names again and reached another impasse.

"So, how about," Callum stopped pacing and turned to face Rayla, "Callum Jr. if its a boy, or Rayla Jr. if its a girl?"

"Seriously?" Rayla rolled her eyes.

"Well you shot down DeSena and Leaellyn, and those were the last ones on my list." He withdrew a torn out page of his sketchbook from his pocket. Scribbled from top to bottom were as many names as Callum could fit, all crossed out. Callum crumpled the list up and tossed it into a waste basket.

"I still kind of like Taima," Rayla suggested.

"Something's just not clicking with that one."

Callum snapped his fingers. "I've got it!" He paused for anticipation. "Rayllum!"

Rayla cocked her eyebrow. "Huh? Tha's just our names smushed together."

"Well isn't that," Callum pointed at Rayla's gravid stomach and flashed a goofy smile, "just us smushed together?"

Rayla tried to stifle her laughter and failed. "C'mon, be serious. We're runnin' out of time to pick a name before she gets here."

"She?" Callum's breath hitched. The jovial expression on his face vanished in an instant. In its place a joyous smile crept up and his eyes flashed with hope.

"It's just a... gut feelin'. No pun intended," Rayla said, suddenly much less confident. "I shouldn't have said anythin'. Watch it turn out to be a boy."

Callum's eyebrows were knit together in thought. He didn't speak for a few moments. The knowledge that he was going to have a daughter, or at least the strong suspicion of it, dredged up something he'd considered months ago but almost instantly dismissed at the time.

"I have another idea," he said sheepishly. "If she really is a she... then maybe we could call her," his voiced quieted to a barely above a whisper, "Sarai?"

"Ya want to name her after yer mum?" Rayla asked. She reached out and grabbed Callum's hand.

"I-I know, it's kind of silly." Callum turned his head away. "I just was thinking awhile back, in a way, none of this would have happened without Mom."

"Well of course not, ya wouldn't have been born without her."

"Not like that. Her death led to Viren and my step-dad killing Zym's dad, which led to meeting you, which led to returning Zym to the Dragon Queen, which led to peace, and on, and on. Without her, none of that would have happened. A lot of it was bad, but so much more was good. Without her, elves and humans would still hate each other, humans would still think dark magic was their only choice, Viren would still be manipulating everyone, I wouldn't be a mage... and I would never have met you.

"That moment made everything else possible. I guess what I'm trying to say is, without that Sarai, this Sarai wouldn't, couldn't, exist. I know that's asking a lot, same as if you wanted to name her after someone and-"

"Callum," Ralya said. She'd gotten up from the couch sometime during Callum's rambling without him realizing.

She took Callum's hand and placed it over her stomach. "I think Sarai likes her name."

"Really?" Callum tried to blink away the rapidly forming tears in his eyes. Rayla nodded while blinking away her own tears.

They embraced as best they could with Rayla's belly in the way. "I love you. Both you of you."

"I love ya too." Rayla leaned into the crook of Callum's neck. "And so does Sarai."

Callum didn't need to ask which one Rayla meant.

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_**When you think about it, almost every major plot point in The Dragon Prince can be traced back to Sarai's death. Without that, nothing happens and humans and elves just stay on their separate sides of the border and Aaravos stays trapped in the mirror. I wonder if that's something intentional on the writer's part and if so would it ever be mentioned in the show itself? **_

_**Happy Valentine's day! (Though now that I think of it, maybe this would have worked better for Father's or Mother's day?)**_


End file.
